Crash d'un Ka 6 lors d'un atterrissage en campagne près de Neuendorf, Suisse
Le 18 août 1967, un Alexander Schleicher Ka 6CR a été impliqué dans un incident d'atterrissage en campagne près de Neuendorf, Suisse. Le pilote, participant à une compétition nationale de vol à voile, a rencontré des conditions de vent détériorées lors du retour d'un vol de distance. En tentant d'atterrir dans un champ, le planeur est entré dans un piqué prononcé et s'est écrasé. Le pilote a subi des blessures graves, et le planeur a été détruit. Le rapport officiel suggère que le pilote a probablement mal jugé les conditions de vent, ce qui a conduit à l'accident.
- Aerotow cross-country: The pilot aerotowed from Birrfeld for a competition cross-country to Courtelary and then began the return leg along the first Jura ridge.
- Late-day weakening lift: As the day progressed, shading of the south Jura slopes caused the thermals to weaken, forcing the pilot progressively lower on the return leg.
- Low altitude near ridge: Around Gensingen the pilot was already down to about 300 m above ground and later continued east with only 80–100 m AGL near Egerkingen/Neuendorf while still trying to progress.
- Turbulent shifting winds: Near the intended outlanding area there were gusty northwesterly winds and possible local fall winds from the Jura, creating turbulent, changing wind conditions close to the ground.
- Turn to landing direction: At low height the pilot turned left from a downwind/base-like leg to align with his chosen landing direction between the railway and the autobahn.
- Stall and nose drop: While turning in turbulent tailwind conditions, the glider was likely over‑pitched to hold the ground track, the inner wing stalled, and the aircraft abruptly pitched nose-down into a steep 45° dive with no effective recovery control inputs observed.
- Crash - serious injury: The glider impacted the field left wing first, overturned, and came to rest inverted about 65 m from the railway line, seriously injuring the pilot and destroying the aircraft.